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Marc Thiessen

Jim DeMint: I won’t endorse anyone for president in the primaries this time

Note that DeMint leaves himself a little wiggle room. When asked why, he says, “As we get into next year, if we have two at the top and one is clearly the conservative and one’s not . . . I might look at it again. But my commitment right now is to stay out of it.”

The reason he is staying out, DeMint says, is that “I’ve got to keep my focus on electing conservatives to the Senate who are going to come in here and help us change the spending culture and help our new president turn the country around.” The tipping point for DeMint came last week, when he watched 32 of his Republican colleagues vote with Democrats to kill an amendment offered by Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to cut $1 billion from the Rural Development Agency, while 11 Republicans voted with Democrats against eliminating a paltry $6 million in funding for the Small Community Air Service Development Program.“I’ve realized over the last week, as I’ve seen how some of the votes were cast in the Senate, [that] we had some Republicans who were going to resist any cuts in programs.”

The lesson, DeMint says, is that while conservatives have made progress in the senate, “We’re not there yet. We just need some more numbers.” He believes his role in 2012 is to unite conservatives behind the right candidates in critical Senate races.

Blowback

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Democrats tried to unseat him with Alvin Green, remember? He has a safe seat, and we will need them all in the coming dismantling.

Who really needs an endorsement besides the candidate? All they do is provide free media mention, of course if your own senator is doing it, it might sway indies. Indies only really get swayed at the last second anyway, so why the rush?

Demint: “Hmmm. My choice is to endorse Romney, or some other candidate who will self-destruct in 30 seconds. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Romney, or a cloud of explosive vapor. That’s a toughie, all right. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Wait — I have a third choice: don’t endorse anyone! Yeah!”

DeMint realizes that the only “electable” candidates aren’t conservative, so I’d rather him use his time and energy to get a more conservative Senate. Which we’ll need with a RINO president to keep him in check.

Full disclosure: I still feel that Bachmann is the only real conservative, but also realize that there’s no way she’ll get the nom.

DeMint is wise in focusing on building a stronger conservative coalition in the Senate. Senators tend to stay in harness a long time, and we have a lot of “collegial” squishes in the Senate currently as demonstrated by the recent votes.

The reason he is staying out, DeMint says, is that “I’ve got to keep my focus on electing conservatives to the Senate who are going to come in here and help us change the spending culture and help our new president turn the country around.” The tipping point for DeMint came last week, when he watched 32 of his Republican colleagues vote with Democrats to kill an amendment offered by Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to cut $1 billion from the Rural Development Agency, while 11 Republicans voted with Democrats against eliminating a paltry $6 million in funding for the Small Community Air Service Development Program.“I’ve realized over the last week, as I’ve seen how some of the votes were cast in the Senate, [that] we had some Republicans who were going to resist any cuts in programs.”

It’s amusing to watch Paul Ryan and Demint act as if their endorsements matter. There’s only one person whose endorsement makes any difference in the races and until she started endorsing nobody cared about any stupid endorsements either.